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Behavioral Flexibility And Species Invasions: The Adaptive Flexibility Hypothesis, T. F. Wright, J. R. Eberhard, E. A. Hobson, M. L. Avery, M. A. Russello

Faculty Publications

Behavioral flexibility is an important adaptive response to changing environments for many animal species. Such plasticity may also promote the invasion of novel habitats by introduced species by providing them with the ability to expand or change their ecological niche, a longstanding idea with recent empirical support. At the individual level, flexibility may arise through innovation, in which an individual invents a new behavior, or through social learning, in which an individual adopts a behavior used by others. There is increasing evidence that the adaptive value of these two modes of learning, and the overall expression of behavioral flexibility, may …